Something's wrong with me. I accidentally touched the stove while it was on, but it didn't hurt. Yesterday, I lit my closet on fire.

-Christopher Dawes, the first recorded Altered individual, December 2nd, 2002 CE

FIELD HOSPITALS WERE the worst kind of boring, Peter Bridge decided. After his grisly shoulder wound was no longer life-threatening, he was forced to hear the moans and wails of his comrades injured in the line of duty on Pil II. Some of their shouts ...